Obituaries : Will Weng, Former Editor of New York Times Crossword Puzzles

Will Weng, 86, who edited the New York Times crossword puzzles from 1968 until 1978. Weng graduated from Indiana State Teachers College in his native Terre Haute, Ind., and got a master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York. Weng joined the newspaper as a reporter in 1930, and later worked as a copy editor and chief of the metropolitan news copy desk. He became only the second editor of the prestigious, challenging crossword puzzles when he succeeded Margaret Farrar in 1968. Weng joked that he liked the job because nobody in top management of the newspaper did crossword puzzles, relieving him of the usual rebukes. On Sunday in New York of cancer.